Although Sonny's a big boy and certainly can speak for himself, I read through his posts and didn't personally think he was out of line. I just went back a re-read them to be sure. It's really easy to mis-interpret the written word to have emotions or tones that aren't there.

I've had posts here that I had to apologize for and didn't mean to offend anyone but it came out different when I wrote it. I'm usually doing three things when I post anyway, sorry for the frequent typos. When you post quickly and don't proof, as I'm guilty of, it looks a little different once you read others take on your comments.

I have very rarely seen anyone here post anything offensive, that's why I like this place. I tried one of the other boards, a big one. It felt like a bar fight would start any minute. So here I am on Cruise-Chat. I learn a lot here too.

Well...here is my view of it. I don't see why so many are taking issue with Sonny. I see nothing confrontational, controversial, or anything close to that in what he posted.

As Neil notes, people often think they need to extract perceived emotions from written words - when nothing was meant by it. It has happened to me more than once around here. People - please try to refrain from microanalyzing posts in some attempt to be offended by them! (and I probably just offended someone by saying that!)

While it may be hard at times to interpret written word, it's not too hard to interpret the graemlins which express a person's attitude or emotion toward a subject. Which cruise line is best "is" and always will be a subjective subject. One size does not fit all.
I think everyone should play nice now.

My American Legion post conducts the local Memorial Day service. We have a retired rear admiral as this year's speaker. We'll then render honors to the local Gold Star Mothers, our post comrades who died over the past year, and of course all other veterans, both living and dead.

My family's graves are in upstate NY, so I cannot decorate them. I am comforted by the knowledge that those graves are decorated each year by the Legion post up there.

Originally posted by serenaface:
1) Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas going to
San Juan
Charlotte Amalie St. Thomas
Philipsburg St. Maarten
2) Princess's Caribbean Princess going to
Princess Cays
St. Maarten
St. Thomas

Some other information:
-we want to be involved in excursions as well as spending time on the beaches
-we would prefer a less "family oriented" ship with lots of children as we are a couple
-Pricewise, we could get a mini suite on the Princess for about $200 more than a normal balcony room on the Freedom

Thank you so much for your help ahead of time!

Serena

The only difference in the ports is whether you want to see San Juan or Princess Cays. Of those two, I clearly say Princess Cays is the way to go - especially since you said you wanted beach time. Princess Cays is one of the nicest private beaches out there in cruise land.

Both of these ships attract families, and both have areas set aside for kids. Really, kids are not a problem on these ships because of the myriad things for them to do. Freedom Of The Seas has more than the Caribbean P in this area, especially with the H2O Zone pool area which helps keep the other pools mostly adult occupied. And family density on a cruise is mostly a function of the time of year that you cruise. Go in the summer and every ship in the Caribbean will have lots of families aboard. That is really the only time we have because of school vacations. But of the two ships, Freedom will tend to have more families aboard.

We went on the maiden voyage of Freedom last year and loved it. We go on the Liberty in a month (same ship class as Freedom).

A balcony cabin on the Freedom is plenty big for a couple. A mini-suite is nice but you have to consider how much time you will actually be in the cabin. Most people really don't spend a lot of time in the cabin.

Food is subjective. I like both Princess and RCI about equally, although Princess has significantly better pizza than RCI!

I agree with Dave that Caribbean Princess is the better fit, based on what you told us. You will have a lot of sea days on your cruise, and as you'd like beach time, I would definitely recommend Princess Cays over San Juan.

Mini-suites on Princess ships are huge, and I'd say the extra $200 is well worth it should you decide on Crown Princess. Not only do you have a large balcony, but the mini-suite has distinct sleeping and living areas, with a TV in each, and lots of storage. The next category down on Caribbean Princess is a lot smaller.